Band:	Wishdoom
Album:	Helepolis
Style:	Doom metal, Heavy metal
Release date:	March 11, 2011
A review by:	Doc G.

01. Helepolis
02. The Battle Of Plataea
03. Up The Hammers
04. Cimmerian Plains - Son Of Crom
05. Crystal World
06. My Wish Your Doom
07. Zeus The Thunderer
08. Guardians Of Steel
09. Screaming Blade
10. Wishdoom

Talk about getting caught in some weird paradox of mediocrity. Wishdoom play a sort of epic power/heavy/what you could consider doom mix. The idea is pretty cool - hearing something aside from typical super-speed power metal, as well as something a little more uplifting than your usual down-tempo metal. Sounds interesting? It definitely does! I'm game...well, I was, now I'm just drowsy.

Problem is, they manage to capture pretty much all the most unexciting parts of the aforementioned styles.

There should really be a line drawn between what is considered a "doom" riff, and what is considered a slow riff. A doom riff should carry some heavy groove to it, maybe have some incredible weight, or perhaps set some kind of atmosphere - evoke some sort of feeling, or emotion. A slow riff, on the other hand, is simply boring, down-tempo pointlessness. That's what 90% of Helepolis is - slow riffs. The melodies that lay on top of the snore-inducing backdrop are actually not too bad, or they wouldn't sound all that bad if they weren't wretchedly over-extended. This over-extended feeling is brought to a near painful climax by the vocalist, who lacks any concept of the phrase "over doing it". Vocal talents tend to stop being impressive after the final word in every line is held on to for far, far too looooooooooooooooooooong.

On the upside, there's nothing really all that atrocious about it, it's not cringe inducing, and hell, there are a few enjoyable melodies here and there. A few nice melodies don't save me from wanting to take a nap after listening to it, though. Helepolis is yet another one of those albums that wouldn't hurt to try if you're looking to kill some time, but just be prepared for an anti-climactic bore-fest without a single exceptional quality to speak of.